It's become one of our favorite holiday traditions, right up there with the Santastic series, and the 2012 Christmas album from Cigar Box Nation has finally arrived. This one's a huge mother--41 tracks in all, I think. Cigar Box Nation is an online community of musicians--professional and amateur--who prefer their music homemade and their instruments the same way. There's a long history of Cigar Box Guitar music in this country and these people keep that legacy alive. You don't need a Gibson or a Les Paul to make great music, so long as you've got an old cigar box and a couple of strings, you're golden. Of course, a lot of these cigar box instruments are a bit more elaborate than that--many electrified and what not. And the annual Christmas album features so many styles and sounds, that it's like opening the mystery present on Christmas morning, with plenty of oohs and aahs all round.

In the best of years, it takes me a long time to get through an entire Cigar Box Christmas album. But a quick hop, skip and jump through "Cigar Box Christmas 2012" reveals plenty of great music, starting with the killer opening Blues number, "Cigar Box Santa" from Mark "Fat Max" Hill. Ledfoot T provides a beautiful folk song about the famous "Christmas Truce 1914" (not quite John McCutcheon, but very fine in it's own right). And there's a rather affecting story-song about the same event, "Le Miracle De Noel" from c# merle. "Snowflakes In The Misty Village" is a sweet and lovely, nearly ambient, old world folk instrumental from SUGIMUGI. "Meansleeves" from The Anonymous Pick is an all too brief Heavy Metal riff that sounds like it came from a lost Black Sabbath session. I very much enjoyed Captain Nemoff's "Welcome To My Kitchen" (some old time country blues, that) and, though this year's set is a bit light on straight up pop, there's one wonderful pop track from Neanderpaul, "Christmas Only Comes One Day Of The Year" that, having grown up a Bubblegum Child, would make this set worthwhile to me all by its lonesome. There's some classic Lo-Fi old timey, some simple heartfelt homemade seasonal tributes, some classic blues rock that sounds like Jimi Hendrix jamming with Eric Clapton, some stuff just for fun, and no doubt some you may regard as clunkers. In short, "Cigar Box Christmas 2012" is a surprise Christmas party in a zip, and everybody's coming. Download it free at Cigar Box Nation.

To tell you the God's honest truth, I'm pretty sure I won't have time, this year, to do an annual "Stubbys House Christmas" collection of some of the freebies we feature. Heck, I don't know if I'll have time to feature enough to even fill out a disc. But, damn, if XO isn't making me think about that some more. XO is a publicity company and, I don't know how they manage it, but every year they pull together an awesome collection of the freshest Christmas tunes on the planet. And it's FREE!

This is the fifth year in a row we've gotten "XO For The Holidays" and, whether a year's collection is short or long, every cut is Prime Grade A Choice. This year's collection features 9 tracks (the ninth is still pending, so feel free to wait on downloading until it arrives) including annual fave Piney Gir. There's a fuzzy "What Child" from Magnuson and a downtempo kind of depressing take on "White Christmas" from Robert Burnham. The rest are originals, sparkling like crystals in the new fallen snow. (???? Yeah, so anyway...) I'll spare the suspence and tell you that "Maybe Next Christmas" from Blue Skies for Black Hearts is my favorite new Christmas song of the year, so far.

And, if you've missed the fun up until now, you can always go back and check out the previous volumes in the series. Just head on over to XO andget you some.

The FREE List

Here we hope to direct you to some of the Christmas music on the web that can be yours absolutely free. We will not direct you to mp3 or sharity sites, here, but only to artist sites, label sites, and other authorized and unquestionably legal locations.